December's Full Cold Supermoon Peaks Soon—Here's How and When to See It

Skywatchers will be able to catch another celestial spectacle before the year ends, when the last full moon of 2025—the Cold Supermoon—appears this week.

The full moon will look full starting tonight, December 3, and will reach its peak fullness tomorrow night, December 4, at 6:15 p.m. EST. It will also appear full on Friday night.

A new or full moon is considered a supermoon if it is at least 90 percent from perigee, its closest point to Earth. This causes the moon to appear larger and brighter than a normal full moon. According to NASA, at its closest point, the full moon can appear up to 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than the faintest moon of the year.

The Cold Supermoon will be the second-closest full moon of 2025, after November's Beaver Moon, and is the third of four supermoons happening in a row; the next and final one will occur on January 3, 2026. While supermoons aren't very rare, it is less common for four to happen simultaneously.

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According to The Old Farmer's Almanac, December's full moon is commonly called the Cold Moon, a name given to it by the Mohawk people because of the cold weather during this time of year. Other Native American names include the Frost Exploding Trees Moon (Cree), the Moon of the Popping Trees (Oglala), the Moon When the Deer Shed Their Antlers (Dakota), the Winter Maker Moon (Western Abenaki), and the Long Night Moon (Mohican).

To see the most dramatic view of the full moon, look up just after moonrise. This is when the moon appears larger because it's near the horizon—a phenomenon known as "moon illusion." Go to TimeandDate.com to find the time of moonrise in your area. Also, seek out a spot with minimal light pollution to see the moon at its brightest.